Dinner with Friends

Dinner with Friends
Written by	Donald Margulies
Characters	Karen and Gabe Tom and Beth
Date premiered	1998
Place premiered	Humana Festival of New American Plays
Original language	English
Setting	Connecticut

Dinner with Friends is a play written by Donald Margulies. It premiered at the 1998 Humana Festival of New American Plays and opened Off-Broadway in 1999. The play received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Gabe and Karen, a happily married middle-aged couple, live in Connecticut. They have been friends with Tom and Beth, another married couple, for many years. In fact, it was Gabe and Karen who introduced their friends in the first place. While having dinner at Gabe and Karen's home, Beth tearfully reveals that she is getting a divorce from Tom, who has been unfaithful.

Tom, who had been away on business, finds out that Beth has told their friends about the looming divorce, and hastens to Gabe and Karen's home. Tom and Beth had planned to tell their friends about their breakup together, but Tom now believes that Beth has unfairly presented herself as the wronged party, and feels he must present his own side of the story.

The time flashes back twelve years, to a vacation home on Martha's Vineyard, when Karen and Gabe introduce Beth to Tom. Over the course of the play, both couples are seen at different ages and stages of their lives. Tom and Beth's breakup affects Gabe and Karen, who first feel compelled to choose sides, and then begin to question the strength of their own seemingly tranquil marriage. They also begin to see the real meaning behind their friendships with Tom and Beth.

The play was initially produced at the Humana Festival of New American Plays (Louisville, Kentucky) in March 1998. The Humana production was directed by Michael Bloom and featured Adam Grupper and Linda Purl as Gabe and Karen and Devore Millman and David Byron as Beth and Tom.

A revised version was presented at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, in October 1998. The South Coast Rep production starred Julie White (Beth), John Carroll Lynch (Gabe), Jane Kaczmarek (Karen) and T. Scott Cunningham (Tom).

Dinner with Friends premiered Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre on November 4, 1999, after previews from October 22 and an out of town tryout in Stamford, Connecticut from October 12 to 17. The director was Daniel J. Sullivan (at South Coast Rep and Off-Broadway), with sets by Neil Patel, costumes by Jess Goldstein and lighting by Rui Rita.

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